The girl that got away
by QueenYoda
Summary: All's fair in love and war, when General Lux Bonteri meets a beautiful pilot from the Rebellion, he is instantly smitten, but there's a problem...She hates Jedi. And against his better judgment, his Jedi family talks him into letting them meet her. A story set soon after the Battleground of brothers.
1. Chapter 1

_Set between The Battleground of brothers and the Curse of Courascant_

~Ahsoka's POV~

Ahsoka exchanged a glance with Intrepid, who then exchanged a look with Nava, who nudged Obi-wan, who nodded to Anakin, who cocked a brow at Padme, who shrugged and looked at Rex who cleared his throat and nodded to Cody.

The twins, watching all this, sat in their seats musingly, all eyes set contemplatively on the young war General seated to the side of Captain Rex, eyes downcast, shoulders slumped in desolation as he picked at his food with a great sigh.

The force around him was jumbled with various emotions. Ahsoka had rarely seen her friend so…Melancholy. Lux Bonteri was a champion of wild proportions. A warrior in his own right, a cheerful man and overall pleasurable influence.

Yet he was picking at the food, tender and juicy still on plate, with a look of pure remorse. It was one of the few nights where all of the gathering family members were, for once, under one roof and not on the battlefront, and he chose _now_ to be moody.

The respite would last three days at most, if they were lucky. Lux knew this, they all did, and all of them strived to be as jovial and lighthearted as possible during these times. It was a well-known fact that one of these days; one of them might not come back.

Lux was no exception to this unspoken rule, and besides, he was not downhearted by nature. Fit to spouts of bursting emotion or brooding, yes, but not so cheerless. There was only one explanation…

"What's her name?" Ahsoka Tano piped in, since everyone else did not seem to know how to start the conversation. Lux looked up, and his dark chocolate eyes were also desolate.

He scowled at her confusedly. "Whose?" he asked. Ahsoka folded her hands before her neatly and met this new wall of silence head on. She _was_ the former apprentice to dashing daredevil Anakin Skywalker after all. Beating around the bush was not where her talents laid.

"The girlfriend that brutally dumped you, of course," She replied with unfathomable calm. Lux's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. The rest of the table watched in silence as anger and indignation flared in the force around him.

Ah. So she hadn't dumped him. Not yet. "When did my personal life become your business?" Lux demanded sharply. None of them reacted but with unruffled tranquility.

"Lux, we're your family," Ahsoka reminded him matter of factly. "You don't have a 'personal life' anymore. You know that. Now, what was her name and what did you do to her?" She asked again.

Lux glared at her a moment more, but the twins, misunderstanding their exchange for a hilarious joke, had burst into giggles. Ahsoka nor Lux could help it; they grinned.

"Good," Padme established, when the tenseness ion the air alleviated as if the air had taken a deep breath. "Now that's established. Lux, what's her name?" It seemed Ahsoka was not the only one who knew one of her closest friends so well. Again, they were a _family_. This idea of privacy was ludicrous.

Lux sighed, his shoulders drooping a bit further down and his aura becoming darker with more melancholy. "Her name is Aira. And before you ask, no, she hasn't denounced me. We're not even in a real relationship yet," he admitted. Ahsoka nodded and sipped at the glass of cold water in front of her, wondering what in the blazes was inflicting the boy then.

"You like her?" Anakin asked sympathetically. Lux nodded miserably. "Yeah. A lot. And…And I _think_ she likes me too," he confessed, cheeks flushing rosy red at this admittance.

"So what's the problem?" Rex demanded, staring at Lux's full plate with some envy. His own rations had long been devoured, and Ahsoka could sense he liked the idea of seconds. She hid a smile.

"Yes. Why don't you invite her to dine with us one night? Or is she one of the village girls?" Padme asked, eyes softening with worry. She knew full well how it was to be in love with someone forbidden.

Their inhabitance on this planet was unknown even to the locals. They could not risk Sidious finding them. "No, no," Lux assured them quickly, as all of their faces creased in worry.

They did not want to stop him if he_ did_ have feelings for one of the village girls, but none of them knew how such a situation would go about being handled safely.

"She's part of the Alliance. She smuggles in supplies and rations to our spies. She's a natural pilot," he explained. "I like her," Anakin announced the second the word 'pilot' had come from Lux's mouth. "Alright, what is she doing here?" Intrepid asked. Lux sighed and leaned back in his seat, anxiously twiddling his fingers in his lap.

"She crashed a few miles away from the base in the forest a few days ago. Fuel ran out. She stumbled out of the forest, stopped by the market for provisions, at first, I thought she might be an Empire spy, and she looked pretty beat up, so I offered to buy her a meal to see what I could get out of her. Instead, we ended up talking and well…" he trailed off with a small half shrug, cheeks a ruddy shade of maroon.

"And now wedding bells are ringing in the air," Rex finished theatrically, with a devious grin. Lux cast him an exasperated glance, though one side of his mouth quirked up further. "I still don't see the problem with this, Lux," Nava went back to the original subject with confusion.

Lux tapped his fingers restlessly upon the large table. "She hates Jedi," he blurted brusquely, with a scowl. There was a brief silence as they took this in. Though, Ahsoka found that she was not overly surprised.

The Clone Wars had not made the Jedi look like big fans of justice or mercy. They were hated for many reasons. It was not uncommon. "You told her you lived with us?" Padme asked at last. Lux smiled ruefully in her direction.

"She's heard about The Trio. She expressed her sympathies," he said softly. Ahsoka was unsurprised at this as well, and cringed. Having been dubbed for their heroic actions _"The Trio" _by the rest of the galaxy, she Lux, and Intrepid were known far and wide. She gulped. She had never thought that such a status would grant Lux problems like this in his life.

"Oh," was the only thing she could think of to say. "Do you know why she hates Jedi so much?" Obi-wan asked rationally. Lux nodded. "Her father…When the Clone Wars began he signed up in the droid manufacturing company, controlling the machines, for extra pay. He was one of the only sentient beings there. The factory was bombed by Republic forces. He died in the explosion," Lux reported to them.

Ahsoka exchanged an uneasy glance with Anakin. They had bombed a droid manufacturing station on Geonosis early into her apprenticeship.

Could it be…? But no, they dared not go into the past. Ahsoka had killed many people throughout her time as a Jedi; it was an occupational hazard of being a peacekeeper for an unsteady galaxy.

"Does she even know if it was a Jedi that led the mission? It could have been a clandestine clone objective," Nava tried to intervene, helpless in the face of such loss, once more punched in the gut with the knowledge that this war, and the war before, had turned the tides in more than one way.

The Jedi were indeed guilty. Had indeed become warriors and killers in an otherwise destitute game.

Lux shook his head, sorrowfully. "It wouldn't matter," he told them softly. Ahsoka sighed fretfully and glanced at Intrepid. Once having thought herself in love with Lux, too, very long ago now, and having decided that she had been frankly _out of her mind_ at that time, she knew the girl's attraction.

She hated that it was squandered by the meandering thought that Lux associated with Jedi; that his family consisted, just about, of Jedi. That this girl who Lux liked would extend her hatred of Jedi to include him just because he was their friend.

It wasn't fair and it wasn't right. People should not be judged on anything but the content of their character. She bit her bottom lip, contemplating. The others looked at Lux, unsure of how to help, if help was theirs to give.

There was so much that they all had to accept in their lives. Loss of love had never been one of them that any of them were willing to accept. Attachment was not love.

At length, breaking the contemplative, gloomy silence they basked in, interrupted only by the twin's munching happily away, Obi-wan spoke. "Well," he thought aloud. "You, of all people, Lux, should know that hatred is ineffective against knowledge. You were able to release your hatred when you met Ahsoka," he pointed out.

"Hey, that's true! Maybe she'll brighten up if she actually meets real Jedi! If she meets us," Ahsoka agreed, looking to him encouragingly. Lux looked doubtfully uninspired by the idea.

"Then again," he said slowly. "I didn't really just hate the Jedi specifically," he told them. "I hated the Republic in general. I'm not entirely sure she won't try to shoot you if she comes here…" he trailed off, biting his bottom lip.

"Ah, we get shot at all the time, Lux!" Anakin brushed off the worry cheerily. "I am sure we can find it in our hearts to forgive her," Obi-wan agreed, cocking one bushy eyebrow as if this should have been apparent.

Considering the fact that they were continuously shot at on the battlefield, Ahsoka had to express her wonder at why Lux would think this would anger them. Ahsoka, by now, considered it another way of greeting, as distinct and natural as a handshake.

Lux still appeared highly skeptical. "I don't know…" he trailed off, anxiously. "It's settled then," Padme said with finality, lifting her fork in the air to jab it at him. "Bring her here tomorrow night. Everyone should still be here. Obi-wan will cook, and she'll get to see the _real _us," Lux gazed around at them with thinly veiled horror, as if he wasn't sure if he wanted her to see the real them or really them at all.

"Alright, I'll propose it to her," he said slowly, dread evident in his voice. "But I don't think she's going to take it very well…"


	2. Chapter 2

~Lux's POV~

True to his words, Aira did not take it very well. "You've_ got_ to be kidding me," she stated incredulously, staring at him with dark violet eyes that burned with deep and smoldering indignance.

Lux stared into the violet depths dreamily. He could get lost in the deep richness of her pupils if he wanted too. Along with straight blonde hair that flowed down her shoulders in magnificent locks, small pert, heart-shaped lips and arms that could manage to hold him down in an arm lock if need be sealed the deal with beauty. But in her eyes there belayed a deep intelligence and fierce independence…

And also an multi-layered _hatred_ of the people he was suggesting they go see.

Lux cringed, understanding her plight, as he sighed. Inside of the small social tavern they were in, he sipped at his caf thoughtfully, stalling. "No," he decided to say after one moment of heart-pounding madness.

"I'm not. Trust me, Aira; I wouldn't spring this on you if I didn't think it would help. Your hatred…" she interrupted him, coldly. "Is perfectly reasonable. They _murdered_ my father," she ground out between clenched teeth, violet eyes flashing a warning. Lux nodded, heart skipping a beat. He would do anything not to make her angry, to cause her undue stress.

Why had he agreed to _anything_ the other's suggested?

"I know," he agreed softly, unwilling to remind her that it may not have been Jedi, specifically, to kill her father, but someone else. But he knew this would make little difference. She did not pin it on one person, did not lay the blame where it belonged, but placed it on them all.

And if he were not careful, him, too.

"Well, if you know, you should be on_ my_ side," Aira growled, her voice rising in the otherwise low murmur of afternoon voices inside of the small shop. They were among the only ones here.

Only few males, playing some card game in the corner, and a small group of multi-species to the left remained. At the sound of her voice rising, a few of the patrons glanced over.

Lux noticed some small sympathetic smiles from the women in the room at seeing his stricken, panicked expression and the males grunted and shook their heads in pity. No matter the species, their body language said it all. _Been there, done that, you're gonna die lad. _

Lux let out a slow breath. His heart was pounding. It always did when he got near her, and his casual charm and silver tongue failed him. He could not help but speak bluntly.

"Once, I would have been. But then I _met _Ahsoka," he reflected, lowering his voice to soothe her frayed nerves. A small smile played on his lips at the memory of them talking for hours on end. And the small infatuation they had once shared that had been broken, not sealed, with a kiss. It had made them better friends in the end.

"I realized she was just a kid, like me. Just as angry and pained by what had been going on, about the war," he reached over and squeezed her hand gently between his.

"They're regular people deep down, Aira. It's just they have to make so many impossible decisions a day," he trailed off with a frustrated huff.

"They don't have time nor the energy to show it," he hastened to explain. "Oh, so they don't have time or energy to stoop to the inconsequential levels of us lowly mortals? They sound like _real_ good people," Aira hissed back sarcastically, snatching her from underneath his reassuring grip.

Lux sat back, at a loss for words. It would be much easier if she weren't so beautiful and didn't inspire so much fright in him. Finally, he turned to the last resort he had; pleading.

"Please, Aira," he tried to cajole. "At least come once, while your ship is in repair at the base. You don't have to talk to them or stay more than fifteen minutes if you don't want. I know this is hard for you. But….But, I…" he stammered on the next words, caught by the wonder of her gaze.

"I really like you," he finished quickly, hastening to get the words out and be done with it, glancing down as he said it. "And they're the only family I've got, and _they _want to meet you. You see Jedi all the time, you must. What with your profession and everything," he said.

Aira sighed, her eyes softening and looked away. Lux wondered if in the dim light he was hallucinating when he saw a rosy flush creep up a long and graceful neck.

He watched it, mesmerized. She was the best blusher he knew, that was for sure. "Lux, I…I mean…Well, I like you too," she stuttered out, looking down to fiddle with her thumbs.

Lux's heart leapt. He felt like bouncing off the walls in jubilation. She liked him? She liked him! He couldn't have been happier had she said he'd suddenly get a chance to end the war.

"And I…I want to get to know you more, and how you live and everything but…" She looked up into his eyes, saw the plead hidden there, and looked down again, biting her bottom lip fretfully. Was he trembling? For some reason his hand looked a bit unsteady.

"And I mean," she gave a helpless half shrug, still not looking at him. "I…I have seen Jedi sometimes after my father died, but they've never _talked_ to me, I've never had to spend time in their territory before; and…"

She was saying 'and' quite a lot. Lux thought absently that if she did that at the house Obi-wan would tell her that it was improper grammar. The thought coaxed a tiny smile from him. It seemed to antagonize Aira further. She looked up at him, and she seemed almost to pale. "It's just…Kriff, it's just they're_ Jedi_!" She blurted out, throwing up her hands.

Lux glanced around worriedly, anxious that she had been overheard, but none of the others were paying attention to their struggle anymore. Internally sighing with relief at the luck of that, he nodded. "I-I know," he agreed softly, ashamed that it was true and still ashamed that he was ashamed.

"Trust me, I know. I don't ask this of you lightly. But the hatred…All it does is eat at you. Besides, I _know_ you can get to like them, maybe…Maybe unload some of that old pain if you only get to know them first," he said again, this meeting being just as much for her sake as his.

He knew firsthand what hatred did to a person's soul, and Aira had so much goodness in her…He could not let that go to waste because of hatred. It just could not.

Aira finally looked up at him, eyes locked unto his for a moment before she exhaled slowly. "I only have to stay for about fifteen minutes, right?" She asked softly.

Lux nodded emphatically. "And I don't have to talk to them? They won't talk to me?" he hesitated. Knowing his family…

"They'll try. But they can get the picture if you don't want too. They're perceptive that way," or at least they would be extra perceptive on that night. Or unusually quiet or at least just smart enough to know that she wanted them _silent._ That wasn't too much to ask, was it?

Lux knew it would be, knew already that the Jedi would do anything to close the rift of tenseness between her and them. They were compassionate-and totally jejune-that way.

Aira, though, was blindingly ignorant to this fact. He saw the fight leave her when her shoulders slumped and she gave him a lopsided grin. "Alright, Lux. I'll come. But I won't like it," fine.

As long as she liked _him,_ he couldn't care less. He nodded eagerly and could have kissed her if he were not on thin ice already. Admiring her strength and bravery, for he knew what obstacles and internal battles he had just fought to even agree to this, he nodded and shook her hand vigorously, having no other way to express his gratitude.

"I know you'll like them, Aira! I know it!" he lied.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Later:_**

It was nearly the dusk of evening when Aira finally came. Dragging Padme to come open the door, which delicate, wonderful fingers had touched from the other side in a polite yet too harsh knock, he straightened his hair for the tenth time.

"Alright, everyone, get in your places!" he called behind him towards the kitchen, briskly clapping his hands to get their attentions. The house was hauntingly empty, the volunteers, clones and mad masses of people having gone back to the base for the night.

Intrepid, Nava and Padme had spent a majority of the day fairly scrubbing the house until it shined. Obi-wan and Ahsoka had been preparing a special dinner, which passed Lux's report of 'suitable for her' and thus were confined to the kitchen.

Rex and Cody had been getting the twins ready, rehearsing their lines of admiration for Lux over and over until the three and a half year old twins repeated every word flawlessly. Anakin had; despite Lux's protests, been giving him advice all day on how to impress girls.

"We have places?" Nava asked dryly as she and Intrepid came down the stairs, dusting off the banister in a last polish. "Yes!" Lux snapped, shoving Padme towards the door.

He had already established that she would be the one to answer it. He didn't want to terrify Aira right away by having the first impression of the house be a Jedi opening the door.

The others had taken it with amusement. "You heard him Obi-wan," Anakin said as he walked into the kitchen. "Go sit on the back porch, near the garbage cans if possible, because that's where all your lectures belong," he teased.

"Come here, Anakin, I'll _show_ you your place, and what I think of your paltry insults," Obi-wan called back, menacingly calm. "With you eyeing your saber? I don't think so…" Lux groaned and pushed his hair back.

His heart raced in his chest and their banter was _not_ helping. "Not now!" he cried hysterically. "Please, everyone just don't embarrass me, and try to act _normal,"_ he begged as another knock came at the door.

He stood a few feet away from the door, trying to act not_ too _desperate and not _too_ indifferent either. "What do normal people act like?" Intrepid asked in a whisper from the back_._

_Oh, gosh, why did I agree to this?_ Lux had a very bad feeling about tonight. Glancing at him with mirth, Padme opened the door and grinned widely at their unhappy guest. Aira's face, beautifully carved, melted into relief at the sight of the non-force sensitive.

"Senator," she breathed, with a small bow as Padme moved aside and gestured her in. "It's an honor to meet you. You've been one of my role models since the Battle Of Naboo," she said, eyes sparkling to have met one of her idols. Padme had the modesty to blush, as if she weren't aware of the several fan clubs in her name around the galaxy.

"Oh. Thank you, it's a pleasure to meet you too," she said, obviously flattered by Aira's words. Lux cleared his throat and stepped forward. So far so good. Aira looked at his ware appraisingly, and smiled. "You look nice, Lux," she said shyly. Lux gulped.

Despite the fact that she was in the same pilot's suit she had been in, cleaned as it were, when she had arrived, he still considered her the most beautiful being in the galaxy. "Uh…I…Ugh…Er…" he stammered, no response coming to immediate mind.

Padme smiled from behind Aira and shook her head, laughing softly. "You're a master of words, Lux. Well done," she teased. Aira giggled softly and nodded. "He does have a way with the ladies," she agreed, with a fond glance at him. His face burned. He had a way with ladies. Whoa.

"Er…Ha. Come meet the others," he invited. Aira's face fell into distaste but she nodded and grabbed his hand. He gave a small start, surprised that she would touch_ him_ with such worthy hands, but strode forward, striving for a confident air.

Leading her towards the kitchen, Padme chuckling softly behind them, he did not get two feet before Ahsoka jumped down from the top of the stairs and landed right before them.

"Oh!" Aira gasped, startled by the sudden appearance. Lux inhaled sharply and skidded to a halt. Aira, one hand pressed lightly over her heart in bewilderment, looked up and then down at Ahsoka again, flabbergasted.

Lux sighed, reflecting that for Ahsoka, that_ was_ normal behavior. At least she hadn't come from a corner, fresh from watching them again. Or, had she…? "Aira, this is my friend Ahsoka," he introduced, glaring at his friend, who returned the look innocently.

Aira did not hide her dislike. Reaching out a hand as if she were about touch a dead animal, she wrinkled her nose as if she smelled something vile, though the air only smelt of baking roast and sweet bread.

"Nice to meet you, General Tano," she said coldly, grim in her duty. Lux cringed, but Ahsoka only beamed at Aira as she shook her hand amiably. "Please, call me Ahsoka. It's good to meet you," she said optimistically. "Now," Ahsoka slung one arm around Lux's shoulders companionably, eyes bright with humor.

"Before we do anything else, do you want to hear about the time Lux here drunk himself into a stupor on Candor VI?" She asked impishly. Lux paled and glared at his friend. She wouldn't _dare_…

Thankfully, Intrepid was there to play hero. Tactfully grabbing Ahsoka by the shoulders, she steered her away from the conversation. "Don't mind her; she's been hit in the head too often. I'm Intrepid, by the way," she said with a broad smile as she shoved Ahsoka back into the kitchen inconspicuously. Aira seemed even less inclined, if possible, to meet intrepid, but she accepted the handshake easily enough.

"Aren't you a healer?" She asked, to Lux's surprise. Intrepid cocked her head and smiled gently. "That depends upon your point of view," she responded mystically. Aira frowned but only shook her head at the nonsense. Lux could have slapped his forehead. He had said normal, not mystic and wise.

Aira must think they were a circus show of freaky monks. "Is dinner almost done, Intrepid?" Padme asked, soothingly unruffled in the face of the end of his life. Intrepid nodded. "I believe so. Let's go see, shall we?" With that said, Intrepid led the way back into the kitchen, Padme at Aira's side and Lux lagging pitifully behind.

This was going to be a long night.

Inside the kitchen, Nava leaned against the bar, laughing over something Obi-wan had said. Anakin sat in a chair next to the twins, sitting gleefully in their booster chairs as they watched him make faces at them. Ahsoka, Rex and Cody stood to the side, conversing softly with a small holo-gram. Lux caught the sight of Ahsoka's comm. link and heard a small gnarled voice. He sighed.

He had said_ normal_ not _war general._

Hating himself for being irritated, because they were, in the big scheme of things, still war generals, he hurried Aira over to the twins before she could notice. Glancing up, Anakin cocked his head, studied Aira a minute, then flashed him a quick thumbs up to show he approved.

Moving so that the twins got the spotlight, he went to bombard Obi-wan in the kitchen with his presence. Luke and Leia, friendly by nature and accustomed to meeting new people every day, turned to smile dimpled grins at Aira, whose face softened as she gazed down at them.

"Hi!" Luke chirped. "My name is Luke. My name means Light," he told her, this second phrase having been drilled into his head by proud parents. Their names assured that they would always remember who they were. Jedi. Yet Aira need not know that.

"And I'm Leia. My name means Peace," Leia said just as proudly, tiny pig-tails especially adorable today. Aira grinned down at them and gently took tiny hands to shake, her eyes lighting up by the two children.

"Well it's nice to meet you Mr. Light and Ms. Peace," she said teasingly. The twins bust into giggles. Lux, deciding that the twins were now his best friends, let out a breath of relief. Perhaps this would not be so bad after all. Aira leaned back, grinning down at them. "They're so cute. I have a little sister about their age," she recalled fondly.

"Cute and mischievous," Padme agreed, with a tired but loving smile at her two children. Luke and Leia, aware that their destructive tendencies were being addressed, burst into squealing laughter.

"I have to chase them around everywhere. They never run out of energy," she sighed. Aira nodded and looked up. "My little sister, Sierra, is the same way. Always off and about. She'll never learn patience," Aira did not sound very repentant about this. In fact she sounded proud. "A daredevil, huh?" Lux teased, finding his voice again.

Aira nodded and smiled at him gently. "Just like her big sister," she agreed with a trifle teasing. Lux looked down, embarrassed for no apparent reason, shuffling his feet nervously. Those violet eyes studied him intently.

"Ah, children. Anakin and I are proud of them though," Padme said, hands upon hips as she sighed fondly. Aira blinked confusedly. "They're force sensitive?" she gasped. Padme glanced at her, a small crease in her brow.

"Yes. Two of the most force sensitive children in the Order," she answered. Aira seemed more surprised than displeased. She gazed down at the twins thoughtfully. "I don't believe it. I always thought Jedi children would be…Different," she said slowly. Lux wanted to say that oh yes, they_ were_ different but not demons, nothing to be feared or despised.

Just different. Just like them all.

But Padme took the other approach, laughing softly. "Oh, no, they're just like every other child in the galaxy. Full of giggles and curiosity. Though, the trouble they get into might be_ extra_," she said poking her beloved children in their bellies. Once more, they burst into gleeful peals of laughter, and Aira's face relaxed minimally. "I see," she agreed softly, watching Padme and the twins thoughtfully.

Lux opened his mouth, racking his head for something to say but Luke beat him to the point. "Do you know that Lux-Lux has dreams about you?" he asked this new girl, squinting at her with recognition. Lux froze in place. Leia wrinkled her nose. "And in the dreams, you two are always naked," she added distastefully. _My life is over, _Lux thought with a groan.

Behind them, Ahsoka let out a strangled noise that sounded rather like; "Phoo shaw!" As she guffawed, along with several others in barely contained laughter. Lux's face burned with mortification as Aira straightened up, confusedly, eyes wide.

"What…?" She breathed, blinking at them with puzzlement. Before the twins could elaborate, Anakin and Rex plunged down to grab them from their seats like hawks swooping down on their prey.

"Do you all just meander around in my mind at night?" Lux demanded hotly, irate and humiliated. Anakin flashed him an apologetic grin, apparently holding back laughter as he discreetly covered Leia's mouth with one large mechanical hand.

"Sorry, Lux, we can't teach them how to shield until they're older. And in their defense, we don't snoop around in your dreams, you sort of just shove them at us. That one even scared me! I was so confused I got up and stumbled to find Obi-wan, but he threw a shoe at me, and told me it was four o'clock in the morning and whatever it was, it could wait and wasn't I too old to be scared of the tooth fairy anymore?"

He informed him as Rex hustled the twins into the kitchen so that they could help set the table. Lux glared, this was no time for joking! Yet to his surprise, Aira let out a surprised laugh at Anakin's description. Anakin stopped, astounded as well, but finally smiled in some relief.

"You're never too old to believe in the tooth fairy," Aira said, sounding a bit taken aback by her own amusement. "Yeah, see Obi-wan? You're never too old to believe," Anakin shot amiably at his partner, who cocked one eyebrow at him, opinion of this statement clear on his expression.

"I'll decline answering that for the sake of your pride. Anyway, that was in you in my room?" He asked. "Who did you think it was?" Cody grabbed several plates, efficiently and almost mechanically setting them around the table. "Frankly, I had no clue. It could have been Dooku and my response would have been the same," Obi-wan replied, with a small shrug.

"It would have," Nava assured them, with a wink at Aira. She returned with a delicate smile, and Lux could see how much she was at least trying to be open-minded. Knowing the amount of loss and anger she carried, his admiration and respect for her spiked in his heart.

"Ah, master, if Dooku would have been in your doorway I would have been right behind him ready to sever his head for even daring to try and hurt you," Anakin promised fiercely.

Obi-wan sorted, not fooled by the charade. "Anakin, you would have been the first to point him in the direction of my room. And then go to the council with a sob story claiming he'd murdered me, and ask for my seat in the same breath," Intrepid, who had been tasting the soup on top of the oven, quickly choked on her strangled laugh.

Lux could not help laughing at the shenanigans of these two. "Well, as I'm sure you know by now," he said, calmer now as the chuckling died down. "That's the famous_ Team_ in the flesh. Anakin and Obi-wan. That's Nava over there, Rex and Cody," he finished introductions.

Aira nodded. "I sort of guessed," she leaned in, her warm breath close to his ear. "And I'll wipe the details of your…Dreams off your tally," Lux exhaled in relief. "Thanks," he gave her a grateful grin and she shook her head. "Clones?" Aira then asked curiously, noticing that Rex and Cody seemed to be helping. Lux read the thought in her eyes that they may be servants.

He hurried to fix this minor misunderstanding. "Rex and Cody dine with us sometimes, when they get tired of their own food and their own brothers. We'd invite everyone in here if we could, but," he smiled tentatively. "We'd drive them insane," he said softly, as if it were a secret.

"Jedi dining with clones?" She made it sound so unbelievable. Her voice rang in his mind from that evening_. "Oh, so they don't have time or energy to stoop to the inconsequential levels of us lowly mortals? They sound like real good people,"_ she must have been surprised to learn the Jedi put no judgment on others. He hoped it helped.

"We'd bombard them whether they let us in or not," Rex told her matter of factly. "Besides, these guys are the ones who watch our backs during battle. We owe them at least a good meal every so often. I don't think we disturb you guys too much anymore," Anakin said, slinging his arm over Rex's shoulders convivially.

Rex glanced at his leader, a small smile playing around his lips. "You're all still very disturbing, but I've learned to like it. Cody?" He asked. Lux hid a smile as Cody tore his eyes way from Intrepid, who was painfully unaware of the attentions, adding last minute spices to the stew.

Aira glanced at him; eyebrows raised as she noticed, Lux gave a shrug. Love wasn't the smartest emotion in the universe, but reason wasn't what made the worlds go round all the time. Just mostly. Cody gave them a nonchalant shrug. "After awhile it even becomes endearing," he deadpanned.

"Good to know. Dinner's ready! Everyone take your seats!" Nava called cheerfully as she clapped her hands, using the force to carry over the plates of steaming food.

Obi-wan watched them being put on the table thoughtful, last minute ingredient already swirling in his calculating head. Lux was sure of one thing at least, if not anything else, and it was that the food prepared would be better than most dared imagine.

Hurrying forward with hands slick with sweat, he pulled out a seat for Aira, next to the twins, who were being suitably silent as they were served their plates. Eyes wide, they once more practiced with their forks, having recently mastered spoons.

The Jedi settled into seats, the comforting rhythm of each talking in turn to the other filling the air as dishes were served around and stories were shared. Lux's shoulders relaxed at the familiar sound. Aira, too, seemed to relax if not slightly by the warm sounds.

Turning to the twins, her friends so far, she smiled. "So, what have you two done today?" She asked. Luke and Leia looked up from devouring their food to smile back, always happy to talk about their days. "Well, we blew up the blender this morning," Luke offered.

"You what?" Padme demanded, in a shriek. All eyes went instinctively to Anakin who put his fork down, and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Um…Yeah. I was going to tell you about that later," he mumbled. "You blew up my blender!" Padme accused, probably already knowing the answer.

"We were trying to make pancakes!" Anakin defended. "Anakin, you know how to make pancakes," Obi-wan pointed out confusedly. "Raw," Anakin elaborated. "Force save us all," Nava muttered hopelessly, placing her head in her hands. "I got the flour and cream, and egg part right, I think," Anakin told his wife, trying to sound optimistic. "And we added berries," Leia put in.

"Good berries," Luke agreed, trying no doubt to be helpful. Anakin nodded. "And…Well…We tried to mix it all together by putting it into the blender, but I didn't exactly know that you needed to put the top _on_," he explained. Padme groaned, already no doubt imagining the sort of torture her new blender had had to go through before it was finally allowed to die.

"So then it started spattering all over and I tried to shove the top back on but it got stuck sideways. Then the blender started blending the top into pieces and I wanted it to stop, and I kept pushing buttons to make it stop, and…." Luke and Leia, obviously having a need to illustrate, threw their hands into the air, "BOOM!" They finished the retelling.

Padme groaned, no doubt trying to figure out how she was going to get a new blender for her otherwise homely kitchen. "This," she sighed, looking to Aira despairingly. "Is what it's like to live with Jedi. They blow up your blenders," She told her with a shake of her head.

"Well, Anakin isn't the most _esteemed_ cook, Padme. At least he tried," Obi-wan came to his friend's rescue evenly. "Yeah, don't I get points for effort, Padme? After all, I didn't give any less than my best," Anakin tried to say.

"You're best was blowing up the blender?" Aira asked dryly, butting into the conversation. Lux almost choked on his soup at her statement, he was cognizant she had meant it as an insult; he knew one had had to have been coming this evening, but the others took it in good stride. Anakin glanced at her expressionlessly, smiling a little in defeat as the others sniggered. "She's got ya there, master!" Ahsoka told him unapologetically.

"At least we didn't _melt _the blender like we did the caf machine," Rex put in, obligingly. "_You_ melted the caf machine, Rex. I know how to work one of those," Anakin informed him self-righteously. Rex was unperturbed by his virtue. He smiled, warm brown eyes dancing. "True…But Padme won't kill _me_, Skywalker," he answered.

Anakin's face fell. "Oh. Right," he agreed. Padme snorted. "I wasn't going to kill him, Rex. Force knows he can make me a new blender. I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to teach the twins not to blow up every blender they see from now on," she studied her children with a professional air.

Luke and Leia gave her looks of innocence, despite sparkling eyes, that obviously said: _"what, me?"_

Lux chuckled. Aira smiled, and took in a deep breath. "Alright," she resigned herself. "Since I'm _determined_ to at least try and last more than twenty minutes here," she glanced at him disparagingly.

"I have to ask," she glanced around at the, curiosity bubble in violet eyes. "What's the weirdest thing anyone of you have ever seen?" She asked the Jedi, who seemed surprised by her proclamation. Considering the fact that it wasn't easy to surprise Jedi, this was partly a step in the right direction.

"Weirdest thing," Nava marveled, leaning back in her seat to ponder it. "Never been asked that before…Which one do I choose?" she asked herself, with a small smile. "One that _won't _make the rest of us lose our dinners, please?" Padme requested politely, shivering in remembrance of some of the other stories that had been passed around during dinner.

"Well then that cuts out most of them," Anakin pointed out. "Fine. Funniest thing," Aira began again impatiently. This seemed to spark more interest. "Well, we could talk about the time we crash landed on the Ewok planet," Ahsoka suggested to Intrepid, who sighed. Lux laughed. "With all the bear people? No thanks!" he snorted.

"Remember when we went camping, master?" Ahsoka asked Anakin, who cocked an eyebrow. "No. I remember nearly getting eaten by boars and giant centipedes. There's nothing 'camp like' about that," he told her. "Well, _I_ had fun," Ahsoka grinned cheekily. "You put me running on the holo-net, that's why," Anakin harrumphed.

"Those were the auld lang syne," Ahsoka said dreamily. "The what?" Aira asked. Lux shook his head. "Don't ask," he advised her. "What about that crazy snake woman?" Rex suggested. "Ah, her and Hermit?" Anakin asked, with a cock of the eyebrow.

"That was just weird," Ahsoka wrinkled her nose. "A crazy person? I should think Jedi meet crazies all the time," Aira pointed out darkly. "Oh, we do, there are just varying_ levels_ of crazies. She was a nice old lady, but she was hopelessly confused," Anakin assured her. "Story time! Story time!" The twins crowed laughingly.

"Okay," Ahsoka was more than happy to begin. "I think it was the second year of my apprenticeship. We had been sent out to the mid-rim somewhere to negotiate something, but due to the wonderfullygracious atmosphere of the warring matriarchs, we were shot down from the capital and landed on the other side of the planet," she sighed, sparing Lux a churlish look as if he had shot them down. He smiled back. _You probably deserved it,_ he thought, hoping she heard that part.

"It wasn't so bad. We only landed in a tree," Anakin told them logically. "Yeah, but we landed clear away from any civilization. There was another duchess living on that side. She was matriarch over the three districts around her town. The people seemed pretty happy, and they were hospitable anyway," Ahsoka, told them, with nonchalant shrug.

"None of them were starving, even if they didn't have a modicum of technology on them," Anakin, who naturally relied upon machinery for most mundane tasks, huffed good-humoredly.

"We went to see the duchess, thinking she might have some way to contact the capital, or at least something to get us there faster than the giant mules they used for farming," Lux snorted. Though neither Jedi very much liked riding wild animals, Lux had seen enough to know they probably would have had substantial luck with the farm mules.

"You should have went with the cow," Nava clucked at them, shaking her head. "Was she even_ legally_ ruling over the districts?" Obi-wan wondered. Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "She wasn't ruling anything, master. The people had established their own councils and democratic system; she just got the biggest house at the top of the hill and claimed it was castle. Again, she was hopelessly confused," she reasserted.

"And let me guess, they went a long with her to humor the old woman?"Intrepid guessed. "They even sent some teenagers up there every once in a while, for punishment, mind you, to play the part of her servant," Lux felt so sorry for the poor teens.

"Nevertheless, at the time, _we _didn't know that. They said she was duchess, she said she was duchess, so we went to the castle, because it obviously had been a palace at one time or another, decrepit as it had looked then." Anakin informed them, ignoring the reflective look Obi-wan was giving him, obviously wondering about the punishment system for teens that the village had set up, and if it would have worked with a certain apprentice of his.

After all, they often joked about Anakin's teenage years, and Anakin had admitted to have been an inconsiderate, selfish, unreasonable, defiant brat. But with love. "So what happened?" Aira asked curiously. "_She_ happened," Ahsoka shuddered.

"The townspeople had been kind enough," Anakin's tone made it just how clear that the kindness had not really been helpful. "To alert her that we were coming. When we got there, she was tangled around a chair painted gold and the gold chipping, trying in vain to look even faintly attractive, which really didn't work out for her since she was probably ten billion years older than Yoda, with a giant snake in her lap," he told them.

"And I mean this snake was_ colossal_," Ahsoka went on. "The things head must have been as big as her chair, and force, its body was long enough to fill up the room with its coils. I couldn't count how many colors it's scales were, but it was enough so that the final effect was dizzying. And it was slithering in her lap slowly, winding its way around her body," she related to them. "Maybe it was tame," Padme suggested.

"It was trying to suffocate her so that it could _devour _her. How she managed to go uneaten for that long anyway is beyond me," Anakin corrected matter of factly. "So of course we tried to help her. I started to take out my saber to attack the thing, but it liked shiny things," she sighed.

"And, well, it basically tried to _grab_ my saber with its tail, or maybe that was its stomach…Oh, well, it burned him. And for some reason, it was then mad at me and tried to devour me next," Ahsoka crossed her arms, unhappy to have been a potential devoured victim.

It was such an discreditable way to go, Lux was sure. "While Ahsoka was distracting the snake," Anakin continued, not without a snort from his former apprentice at the wo_rd 'distracted' _as if anything they ever did was planned out beforehand.

Lux glanced over at Aira, and saw her eyes were as wide as the twin's were at the tale that was being spun for her amusement. He caught Padme's eye and grinned. Padme winked at him knowingly.

"I was planning on grabbing the lady to get her out of there, but before I could even reach out to grab her, she had suddenly bashed my head in with a pan. I have no clue _where_ she got the pan, or _how _long she had just had it sitting there but it hurt like the altogether blazes when she hit me," Anakin snorted. "You think _you _were in pain?" Ahsoka demanded incredulously, narrowing her eye sat him.

"That snake had my leg in its _mouth_, and the fangs were longer than my fingers, added to that was that they were _in my leg_, thrashing me around. What really didn't help was that you got in an argument with the old lady while I held off a giant snake," Ahsoka glared at Anakin, who gave her an apologetic smile and shrugged.

"You had it distracted. And besides, she was yelling at me that we were hurting Thomas. I tried to assure her that we had no clue who the heck Thomas was, and frankly I really didn't care at that point, but then she pointed to the snake," Lux cocked an eyebrow.

"She named it Thomas?" he asked. "She named it all sorts of things," Ahsoka grunted sardonically, "One minute it was Thomas, the next hermit and then again it could also be pinkie-pie or pixie dust or something. And it didn't matter to her that it was trying to _eat_ me, no, she was fully intent on banging my head with the pan too unless I stopped harassing her beloved Thomas/Pinkie-pie/hermit/whatever else she called it."

"Which, admittedly, really didn't seem like too good of a plan with the snake. He did_ not_ want to let you go Snips," Anakin told her. "I know. I wish Obi-wan had been there to give him the attachment is forbidden speech, the thing was way too clingy," Anakin snorted in response.

"Did you kill it?" Luke interrupted; eyes wide. Ahsoka shook her head. "No. trust me, I wanted too, but no. The old lady just called it's name, I didn't have time to hear what it was that time, and it let go of me to slither back towards her," so it had been tame.

Or at least trained. "Leaving you bleeding and half conscious," Anakin added. Ahsoka gave him a half lidded glare. "Something like that," she grumbled in sullen agreement, always peeved to know that she had been at a disadvantage at any moment in her life.

"Then, obviously not noticing the bleeding, unconscious girl on her rug, the lady told me she liked baboons," Anakin said, matter of factly. "Why?" Aira asked, blinking in confusion.

"Because she was hopelessly confused," Anakin answered mildly. "She introduced herself, and for the life of me I cannot recall her name, I was a bit worried about the unconscious girl I was supposed to be protecting, but then again, Thomas didn't look like he was going to be good either," Anakin considered, looking faintly thoughtful that perhaps he should have attended to Thomas first.

"So, like a_ sane_ person," Ahsoka enunciated 'sane' with a careful sarcastic edge. "He let her convince him to let us stay in one of the spare rooms in her castle to let me heal," she crossed her arms and glared.

"Well, you were_ bleeding_ Ahsoka. I didn't want to move you too far, besides I couldn't leave the old lady, as confused as she was, with a giant reptile who liked blood. I still don't know why it hadn't eaten her, but I would have felt bad if we came back the next day and saw her sticking out of its mouth," he informed her. Rex snorted.

"She probably would have tasted horrible," he grunted. "Like toe jam and apricots," Padme agreed magnanimously. "Ewww!" Luke and Leia shrieked in unison, giggling at the thought of what that could taste like, Lux smacked his mouth, thinking that suddenly everything he had just eaten tasted sour in his mouth.

Aira wrinkled her nose, and glanced at the senator incredulously, obviously surprised that she would say such a thing. "Thanks for the image, angel," Anakin chuckled cheerily.

"Anyway, I carried Ahsoka to the room she suggested we stay in and that was even creepier. The walls were a dark _maroon,_ blood red, and there were portraits of different snakes everywhere. I mean, I've seen fanatics, and I can even understand sometimes, but she was just taking it way too far. The giant bed was maroon, the walls, the tables, everything as dark red and there were portraits of snakes everywhere. I even checked underneath the bed and in the closet to see if there were any hiding in the cracks or something," he shuddered at the memory.

"I bet there was a nest of eggs in the attic," Ahsoka said with a shiver. "Ah, come on Snips, why'd you have to go and say a thing like that?" Anakin groaned miserably.

"Because that's what you told _me _when I woke up in the middle of the night, later, when things got_ really_ weird," she reminded him pointedly. "Things could get and weirder at that point?" Lux chuckled softly at Aira's question, having had enough experience to know the exact answer.

"Things can _always_ get weirder when you're with Jedi," he told her knowingly. "Matter of fact, I've yet to experience a time when things don't get weirder just when you start to think that everything might be alright," Padme shook her head. "_Never_ think that," she said with a shiver.

"Then things only get worse," Aira nodded sagely, curiosity and a bit of waning anger reflected in deep violet orbs. "Don't scare our guest, you two. What happened then, poor miscreants?" Nava scolded, with a twinkle in her eyes that said she found this assumption very amusing.

Anakin snickered at the title as Ahsoka screwed her lips thoughtfully as if she were giving it some consideration. "Well, as she said, she woke up in the middle of the night. I had stayed with Ahsoka in the room, keeping track of the old woman with the force. Well, by the time Ahsoka woke up, I was a bit worried because I could sense she was a bit…Er…_Riled_," Anakin's mouth perked at the corners, his eyes sparkled with mischief as he glanced at the twins, obviously debating something.  
"Riled?" Obi-wan repeated sounding a bit worried as to what would have riled her with a giant snake in her room. "Yeah," Ahsoka's mouth quirked up at the corners as well, and she shook her head coming to fold her hands before her with a delicate grace that would be appreciated by many admiring males in the galaxy.

"We could sense it. Pheromones and excessive excitement for someone of her tender age. She was a billion years older than Yoda, note," Ahsoka told them with a scholarly air. "What had her so excited then?" Aira demanded, impatiently. "We went to investigate exactly that, and, well, it wasn't a pretty sight," Anakin shuddered.

"Did the snake eat her?" Padme asked, suddenly placing a flexible noodle down as if I were a reptile itself. "Not exactly," Ahsoka exchanged a glance with her master. "She was with the snake, of course, and having quite a bit of fun. In bed. Without any clothes on. Moaning. I think you all get the picture," Anakin finished with a discreet wave of his hand. Aira's mouth dropped. Lux found he was not all that surprised. He had sort of been expecting an end like that. The universe was full of diverse people.

"She was trying to…?" Aira gasped. "What was she doing?" Leia piped in, her eyes wide, not understanding the exchange between the older ones. "Something that if I ever find you doing when you get older I'll rip his head off, and I won't care if you love him or not," Anakin informed her determinedly. Leia stared at him with further confusion. Luke shook his head, befuddled.

"So the snake ate the lady?" he asked after a moment of shocked silence from the others. "We never found out," Ahsoka said with a short bark of laughter. "After a moment she looked up to see us standing there, and the poor woman was so frazzled. She started to get out of bed, hurriedly stuttering that she and Hermit were only getting reacquainted and where was her manners and would we care to join them?"

Lux let out a snort of laughter at Padme's expression and splutter, which ranged from horrified to indignant. Ignoring the twin's exclamations of _"join them in what?"_ Anakin gave her an innocent shrug to indicate he had felt much the same.

"The poor women was so tangled up in her friend that she was could barely get out of bed, and neither of us wanted to go hunting for her bare behind or interrupt their business, so we did what any responsible, respectable Jedi would do…."

Skywalker told them in case they mistook their actions for what it assuredly would be. "We made a _graceful retreat_ towards the door, maximum speed, and grabbed the nearest cow we could find to hike our way back to the castle like we should have in the first place," Ahsoka finished with a satisfied clap to signal the end.

"And everyone lived happily ever after!" Leia shrieked, this being her favorite and oft-repeated statement to accompany the end of every story told at the table. Luke and Leia burst into gracious applause, despite their obvious incomprehension about what exactly had happened between the lady and the snake. "Well, that was… Interesting," Intrepid observed without much emotion. "It was downright weird!" Aira disagreed, still in complete shock. Lux had heard worse.

"The things you two get into when I'm not there," Obi-wan agreed with a long-suffering sigh as he stroked his beard. "Some would say they need a chaperone," Nava agreed.

"Hey! That's not fair, master, whenever I'm not there you always end up getting injured or get yourself into life and death situations," Anakin said defensively, feigning a glare at his partner in crime, who cocked a meager eyebrow at him as if to challenge him to elaborate. "Like the arena on Geonosis," Padme chuckled, with a fond glance at the two.

"Or the trip to Toydaria, Xin IIV, the Rishi system, Castle Nomadia…." Obi-wan cut off the list with a wave of his hand. "May I also remind you Anakin, that the only reason I ended up injured or in a life and death situation was because_ you_ arrived? I was only slightly in trouble whenever you'd get there and by the end somehow I always end up with something broken or punctured," He told his younger counterpart mildly, mouth quirking at the corners.

Anakin narrowed his eyes, about to snap a comeback, but after a moment of deliberation, gave up.

"Hmmm….True enough. It's only because we're a magnet for trouble," he announced as if that were the last word on the matter after a moment. "_You're_ a magnet for trouble, Anakin. I'm just the innocent person caught in the middle trying to get you _out_ of trouble…"

"No way! You start it…"

"And finish it with more injuries than was my fair wont…"

"Hey, it's not my fault you like to make selfless, heroic gestures all the time!"

"Yes, but it_ is_ your fault that we get into a situation where I'm prone to make selfless, heroic gestures…"

"You'd make them whether we were in a life or death situation or not! Like that time on Cato Neimodia when I had to save your tail because…"

"I already told you that does not count!"

"It does too count! Because the bomb on Mandor counted!"

"Well, of course, it was a_ bomb_. Bomb scenarios always count,"

"So do criminal scenarios! I mean seriously, the guy tried to kill you…"

"He was innocent; he was only defending himself…"

"He held you hostage, master!"

"It didn't help when you tried to blow the compound sky-high, you have to admit,"

"I will admit no such thing. He was trying to_ kill_ you,"

"You act as if it's something new…"

"No, it's not new but it's still offensive…"

"Nonsense. He was a perfectly nice man, he was only desperate…"

"Desperate to get himself blown sky-high by your maddened troops?"

"I thought those were_ your_ troops,"

"My troops were using the battering ram at the door, thank you! Shows how much you know."

"Oh? The same battering ram that knocked over two support beams which then fell on top of me?"

"Only because you jumped to push criminal man over so he wouldn't get crushed!"

"Crushed by your battering ram catastrophe, my very young apprentice,"

"Oh, for goodness sakes, master, I am a _Knight_!"

Aira leaned in against his ear, chuckling softly, a real smile (force, she had a gorgeous smile) on her face. "Do they always do this?" she whispered to him softly.

"All the time. Don't worry, they're hilarious to watch when they really get into it. Nothing like a good old fashioned Kenobi/Skywalker argument to cramp your sides," Lux said softly, oddly at ease as he sat back watching he familiar spectacle of Anakin and Obi-wan arguing without any awareness of the others around them.

"I might try to add a perk or comment in there here and there to keep it going," Padme snickered, whispering to Aira conspiratorially. "It's fun to watch, just like fanning the fires," Rex agreed, as the twins watched the twosome argue and bicker good-naturedly. "Are they best friends or arch enemies?" Aira asked him, crossing her arms and seeming to sink into her chair as if she intended to stay awhile.

Lux watched her affectionately, wondering if she felt the same warmth in her chest as he did as they went over this familiar familial routine. In the end, he really didn't know how anyone could hate the Jedi.

"Better," he almost whispered as a trembling and sweat soaked hand grabbed hers underneath the table. "They're brothers," but force they were the oddest pair, and he wondered if she would actually believe it.

But she was a fast learner. She squeezed his hand and settled in her chair for the long and comical wait. "Oh. Okay," she accepted merely, perfectly fine with this already. Lux, delighted that she was actually allowing him to hold her hand, grinned unabashedly. "Okay," he breathed back, and also watched the growing spectacle with amusement.

_I have the best family __**ever**__,_ he thought contentedly.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Later:_**

"Alright, you two, time for bed," Padme said softly as she hauled two half un conscious force sensitive children into their respective room for the night.

Luke and Leia, too tired to protest, only nodded blearily, their heads already filled with dreams of heroic misadventures and Good Samaritans.

"Do you want to say goodnight to Aira before you go?" She asked as Anakin picked Leia up, grinning as she stuffed one small thumb into her mouth, a tiny smile flitting over a half-asleep face.

"Night, night, Aira," they muttered in unison, eyes drooping as they rested respective cheeks on their beaming parent's shoulders. Lux shook his head. Most would have suspected, with grins like that, the twins parents would shamelessly spoil them, and this assumption would not be far from the truth.

It was obvious Anakin and Padme adored their children, the love they held for the small toddlers evident in every move they made. But what with the rest of the Order's strict mentors there to make up for it, he supposed the twins wouldn't be_ that_ bad of brats when they were older, and hopefully they would be brats during their teenage years so that they could all sit back and watch irony work its magic.

He glanced up to Obi-wan to see a small, impish smile on his worn features showing that he; too, was thinking the same. Lux chuckled softly and turned back where Aira was smiling gently at the two, her eyes full of affectionate compassion as she gave both a fond kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight Mr. Light and Mrs. Peace. Sweet dreams," she whispered as Anakin and Padme carefully huddled their smiling bundles upstairs to bed.

Lux smiled and shook his head as the clones quickly made a diplomatic retreat, leaving the rest of the Jedi to the cleaning. Lux was considering taking the same approach when Aira grabbed his hand.

"Lux? Talk to me?" She asked softly, glancing pointedly at the door. Lux, with a glance at the kitchen, where Intrepid cocked her head slightly to the right to indicate it was fine; he nodded and allowed her to lead him to the front porch outside.

He closed the door softly behind him and looked up at her, breathless with the extent of her beauty as she gazed thoughtfully at the full moon ahead. "So?" he asked softly, unwilling to break the spell of her beauty, mesmerized and slightly dizzied by the effect she had on him. She turned, a light blur halo tingeing the edges of her blonde hair.

"Lux, I…" She trailed off, uncertainly, hugging her elbows as if she were chilled by the chilly air. Lux decided she was exquisitely beautiful when she was cold.

"I… I should thank you for tonight. I…I had fun. I really did have fun," she whispered softly, and for some reason she sounded heartbroken, as if her night had not only been a stain ion her heart but the galaxy in general. Lux scowled. "You had fun…yet something bothering you," he stated.

She nodded, biting her bottom lip, and gazed at him, the moon outlining her body from behind. She looked like an angel, an angel who's expression fairly screamed anxious pain, but an angel all the same.

"Yes, I….Ugh, do you think I'm betraying my father with this?" She blurted finally, turning to him with fearsome self-loathing.

"I mean…I liked them. I _really liked_ them. I'm so used to hate, and detestation. I've loathed the Order for a long time, and now suddenly realizing that I can no sooner loathe the people I met tonight as I could love Sidious, I…I feel like I'm betraying my father's memory somehow. What do you think?" She asked him, seeming almost desperate for his opinion.

Lux fidgeted with the hem of his pants, so wanting to give her a good answer, so wanting to try and tell her that it was not wrong to let go of hate, and yet at the same time he remembered the feeling. He remembered that he had begun to think that he had betrayed his father's memory by liking Ahsoka.

"Your father loved you, right?" he asked at last. She blinked startled by the sudden answer and no doubt the seriousness in his eyes. He had no clue how anything could be so differently serious at the moment, it just wasn't right that such a beautiful creature could feel this much pain.

"Of course he did. Very much," she maundered. Lux nodded and walked closer, so that he could see the rise and fall of her chest, which he _really _needed to stop glancing at before his thoughts betrayed him.

"Then he wouldn't _want_ you to feel hate on his behalf. I…I felt the same way when I first met Ahsoka; I thought my mother was betraying our father's memory by inviting them. I remember we got into a fight about it," he smiled bitterly at the memory.

They never had made up that fight, and now his mother was gone. He would never be able to thank her for bringing Ahsoka and thus the others into his life. He would never get to apologize for not understanding, for letting blind hatred and rage cause him to raise his voice. He had an idea that she would have understood anyway.

"But she was right. If I would have continued hating The Republic and Jedi, then eventually that hate would have consumed me, I wouldn't have the life I have now, the people I have now, and…" he thought a moment.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure who I would be without the Jedi. Maybe one day, you'll find they've made you into someone better too," he told her softly, gazing deeply into anxious violet eyes that calmed at the realization of his words. He smiled at the relief he found there. "I'm so glad you came," he confessed softly.

"I know how hard it was for you, Aira. It takes a truly strong person to forgive something like this. And I know it made them feel better too, they've been forced to do some things that they hate during this war. Knowing that for now, at least, they made it up to_ somebody_ for the dealings of the Jedi, well…I think they'll all sleep a bit better tonight," he offered.

He wanted to assure her that she was not the only one who had needed healing tonight. Sometimes it helped to know you were not alone in the process, e ven if the healings were not always for the same reasons.

Aira nodded, then sobered. "They're good people, but…They've all killed, haven't they? Even you, Lux. You've killed," he gulped. "Yes. I have," what else was there to say?

It hurt to acknowledge it, to have it thrown in his face again and again, but that was the life of a hero. In order to stay sharp, to remember that the life you were taking was still life, and you had no right to take it, whether for justice or self-defense it did not matter, you had to be reminded every day just who may have suffered because of your decision.

For all any of them knew, it could have been one of the Jedi inside of the room that could have had a hand in killing Aira's father. Maybe not.

They would never know, and he respected her all the more because of it. She very well could have come face to face and spoken with her father's murderer here tonight, but she had done so with grace and civility.

She had forgiven, though he knew she would never forget. Neither would he.

She studied him a moment more, thoughtfully biting her lower lip. He watched her, wondering what to do now, if there was something more to be said. What all of this meant for him and her.

"There's something about you that is Jedi," Aira said after a long moment where the only sound was that of the wind, the crickets and the whispering of stars. Lux remained silent, aware that he was not meant to answer.

"It's in Padme, and even those clones. An air about you that just…It marks as a hero, like you were _destined_ for greater things, meant to live different lives than the rest of us. I don't know _what _it is, exactly, but you're special, Lux Bonteri, very special," he found himself blushing at her words.

She thought he was special? He was destined for greater things? He had been told this a multitude of other times before of course but coming from her it felt…_Real._

Not just another compliment by another person who knew nothing more of him than just the endless tales of heroics he had pulled off. She knew him now; and still dubbed him special, a hero; that was what _really_ mattered. That was what made his heart glow with pride…And love.

"Well, you know," he said softly, eyes on his feet. "You're pretty amazing, too," he mumbled. "Thanks. I appreciate that. It means a lot, coming from you," Lux looked up at the catch in her voice. When he did, he found her face was grave, and sad. Her large eyes scanned his face as if memorizing each tiny detail for the road.

"What is it?" He asked softly. Aira sighed and took a small step back. The air between them chilled Lux more than the plains of Hoth. "Lux, please don't…" She trailed off, looking down at the ground before she took in a shuddering breath and looked up again. Lux had the distinct feeling this was a goodbye.

But why?

"Lux, I…I like you. I like you a lot," his heart skipped a beat. "But…All the time I was sitting in there, despite the fact that I was having fun, that I laughed more tonight than I've laughed since…Hell, since daddy died, I _knew_ with a gut deep feeling that I did not belong there. I felt like the pariah at the table, no matter how kind everyone was with me, but you…_You _belong with them, Lux. You _are _one of them, whatever it is you all are, not really Jedi or heroes, but something…" she gave a half shrug.

"Bigger, better, more amazing. As much as I like you, as much as I like them," she gave him a rueful smile and gestured inside. "I could never be like you. I could never be one of you; I'm not special like you all are," she told him softly, sorrowfully.

He could see the regret shining in her eyes. He hastened, desperate, to dissuade her. "But you are special!" he blurted immediately. He stopped forward boldly, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Yeah," she agreed, nodding confidently. "Special in my way. You all have your own sort of special; you all have something in common that I could never have. Lux…You belong with them, but I could never belong with you all. I'd forever be the outcast, but you can't come with me!" She told him, as if he had been about to suggest it.

He found, with a secret wilting sort of shame; that he hadn't been about too. The thought of leaving the others, indefinitely, was excruciating.

"You love it here, Lux; I can see it in your eyes. You love these people, and I'll bash your head in myself if you dared ever leave them for the likes of me. Still, I can't stay," she cringed visibly. "I'm sorry, Lux," she repeated gently.

Lux stood there, his head spinning, his world exploding, and amongst the ashes, he stood resolute on what she had said. He did belong here.

He knew that, and as much as it hurt, as much as he had come to love this _woman _in one night, had come to respect and admire her for her strength and compassion, he knew that it could never be. He had a destiny that she did not share.

Not because his family was Jedi, but because he too was one, and as such was forever separated from the rest of the universe.

He cleared his throat, blinking away tears. "I…I understand," he croaked. Aira looked up at him with concern, with affection…With the sprouts of love they had to pull up from the roots.

"And I…Agree. We're not meant to travel the same path," he said softly, huskily. Force, why hadn't anyone ever told him love _hurt _this much?

"But we're still friends," Aira surmised quickly, then looked at him uncertainly, cocking her head. "Aren't we?" She asked again. He gave her a lopsided grin and squeezed her shoulders.

"Always," he promised, throat tight, the lump in it pestering him mightily. Aira smiled in relief, but then scowled. Her bottom lip puckered. Lux's eyes blurred.

He closed them. She bit her lip and stepped from underneath his touch. "Thanks again, Lux, and tell them…Thanks, Just thanks. I'm pretty sure they can fill in the gaps themselves," she said, and did not specify whom she meant. Lux did not need specification. He nodded.

"I will. You be careful out there," she was a pilot smuggling things for the Rebellion, after all. She gave him a cocky grin and put one hand on one delicately crafted hip. "Careful isn't my thing," the teasing glint fell away to smooth into gentle waters of violet regret.

"You stay safe, too, Lux. I'll…I'll think of you, a lot," he could no more answer to this than he would have been able to answer to the assumption that he had killed before. There was nothing he could say.

He could only nod, and watch as she gave him one last tiny smile and turned, walking into the desolate night, cloaked by darkness, still with a halo of moonlight around her as she made her way towards the base and where her ship lay waiting, fueled, for her departure.

He watched her, heart trembling, yet strangely at peace, or at least content that though he had not found a soul mate today, he had found a new friend.

Finally, when she had walked too far, without looking back, that he could no longer see her, that's when he went back inside.

He sighed as he made his way back into the warm confines of the kitchen, already scrubbed into perfection. He looked up just as Ahsoka and Padme as topped teasing Anakin and Intrepid and Obi-wan had ceased lecturing Nava. They all looked up, and he knew his sorrow was transparent by the grave looks they bestowed upon him.

"She's gone," he answered the unspoken question in their eyes. "But why?" Padme asked softly, her brows scrunched in pained confusion. Lux knew she had liked Aira. "She seemed like she was enjoying herself," Lux nodded.

"She did. She left here without hatred, without any more bitterness about her father's death, she said she laughed more tonight than she has since he died, and she told me to tell you guys thanks for that. But…" he shrugged helplessly, still numb on the outside with cold, bittersweet content on the inside.

"She knew she couldn't ever truly belong here with us. Her destiny lies within a different path," he said, and with all the weariness within him, he knew he sounded more mystic and wise than he had for a long time. Perhaps this_ was_ his normal behavior now.

For a moment; a contagious silence. Then, Intrepid sighed, pulling fretfully at her right head tail. "We're sorry, Lux," _what for?_ was his first thought but knowing the others they'd find some minor, insufficient doubt to blame themselves for. He chuckled softly.

Ah, family. He had known Aira would like them.

"Don't be, it isn't anyone's fault. She knows where she belongs and I know where I belong, and it's not together, that's for sure. Everything worked out for the best," mission complete. Success, right? So why did he feel so tired and melancholy again?

_ She might as have dumped me for all I'm feeling,_ he thought. Then remembered that they had never been in a real relationship to start with. "True, but we know how much you liked her," Ahsoka said with a small sigh of understanding and regret.

"Heck, we liked her too, she had spunk," Padme muttered. "And," Obi-wan nodded thoughtfully, eyeing him earnestly. "She did like you as well," Lux smiled, shifting his feet.

"Therefore we all liked each other. Mission accomplished," he said softly. None of the other smiled, though amusement twinkled briefly in various sets of eyes. Nava regarded him with a mother's worry.

"Will you be alright, sweetie?" she asked him softly. The others turned serious once more, the same question reflected in each eye. "Yes," he sighed at last. "I'll be just fine with some time and action," the others looked very much like they doubted this, but nodded anyway.

Slowly, Ahsoka and Intrepid, both muttering quiet curses towards the fates as they led him away, drew Lux back upstairs.

Before he was hauled into bed for a good nights' rest, his eyes went to the windows outside, where he could see, just vaguely, a small dot of light shoot into the air and then whiplash amongst the stars. Aira was gone, back to the stars where her destiny laid waiting.

Lux glanced at Intrepid and Ahsoka at his side, then the other Jedi quietly debating behind and around him. He smiled happily with a sudden burst of well-being; sure that everything was, for the moment, completely perfect in his life. Lux Bonteri laughed softly. His destiny was right here.

And he had no regrets.

**_ THE END_**


End file.
